


love is a doing word

by shcherbatskayas



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: F/F, a lonely bi writes a lonely lesbian, everything is tame except for one (1) time maki says the shit word but i think y'all can handle it, regular hope's peak verse, shcherbatskayas content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 11:19:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13763019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shcherbatskayas/pseuds/shcherbatskayas
Summary: The idea of strawberry smoothies enters Maki's mind, and it just won't leave her alone.





	love is a doing word

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cheinsaw](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cheinsaw/gifts).



> this is really Baby's First Kaemaki and like. i love these girls. the title of this is from [this awesome song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h-JYx76QNM), which you should listen to as you read this. not required, but you know. anyways, let me know what you think and tysm for reading <333

The loneliness sits in Maki’s chest like heartburn with claws and Maki lies on her side, shoulders hunched, knees pulled up almost to her chest, curling over it like she’s trying to physically contain it. She knows she shouldn’t be lonely here. She’s met more people in her months at Hope’s Peak than she has in the rest of her life combined and she even managed to make a few friends, but that makes it worse. The knowledge that there is a connection, a thread which she could pull, but Maki won’t pull on it, can’t pull on it, because she’s far too scared of breaking it. She’s charged into certain death without blinking and taken down three, four, five men at once, but when it comes to this, she is a coward. 

Maki rolls onto her back, silk sheets like sandpaper on her shoulder, and she forces herself to take a deep breath. In and out, eyes closed, trying to make the tightness in her chest disappear that way. Trying to treat it like it’s physical when Maki knows the cause. 

Her phone is just to the right of her and Maki rolls onto her side to get it from the nightstand, but then she stops herself. Forces herself to lay on her back again. Kaede’s had a hard enough day, and so there’s no need to bother her now.

But part of Maki worries. Finding Kaede sobbing over the piano was worrying enough, but having her act like nothing happened was worse. The worst of it was when she shut the door to the practice room in Maki’s face, gentle yet certain, and returned to her piece. She knows that means she should leave Kaede alone, but Maki still worries. She wants to know if Kaede is okay, wants to talk to Kaede, wants to be near her. 

And she wants a strawberry smoothie. 

The thought comes out of nowhere, but now it’s all Maki can think about: her own wants, selfish and all-consuming. She wants to talk with Kaede, to listen to her problems and console her the best she can, and she wants to drink a strawberry smoothie. And that would get rid of the feeling in her chest, too, but that’s just a bonus. This is an ache Maki knows—it’s just worse now because she knows that there’s a cure for it. 

Maki holds her phone in her hand and just sits for a while, contemplating if she really should do this. She decides that it’s worth one more shot. One more knock on the door, and it she gets turned away again, that will be the end of it. Besides, the idea that she could help Kaede, that she could offer her something that could fix what was wrong, but won’t do it because of her own fear is unbearable to Maki. She knows so little of love, but she knows that it is something that requires action, even if the action is subtle and disguised as a pointless gesture of friendship. Love is not something that is made to sit still; there’s a reason it was listed as a verb when Maki first looked it up. 

**Maki:** Hey. 

**kaede!:** hey! what’re you doing awake, it’s like 1 am lmao

**Maki:** ...What are you doing awake? 

**kaede!:** okay, fair point. 

**kaede!:** anyways! what’s up?

**Maki:** I was wondering if you wanted to get a smoothie from the kitchens with me. 

Maki sends the text, and then immediately feels like the biggest idiot to ever walk the face of the planet. She can’t bear to look at her phone, so she turns the volume up and hides it under the covers while she hides her face in a pillow. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she was so stupid and— 

Her thoughts are interrupted by a cheerful little two-bit tone, and Maki all but lunges to grab her phone again. 

**kaede!:** sure! i’ll be at your dorm in a sec. 

Maki feels herself smile on instinct, and then she clasps her hand over her mouth to hide it from the no one that is watching. She lays there for a moment and gives herself time to enjoy the feeling before she gets up and checks herself once in the mirror. She’s still in her pajamas, but Kaede will be too, so it doesn't matter. Her hair is still in its neat pigtails and Maki ducks her head so she can check the part of it, making sure it’s as straight as she is not. It’s still perfect, so there’s no need to fuss with it. 

And then, there’s a knock on the door. Maki makes herself walk slowly, not wanting to seem like she cares so much. When she opens the door, only three things exist in the whole world: her, Kaede, and the moonlight. It should be illegal, she thinks, for something as simple as seeing Kaede to make the universe shrink and expand all at once, but Maki knows no way to regulate that and even if she did, she’s been something of a lawbreaker for her whole life. Nothing would fix what she feels now, and Maki considers the possibility that maybe this feeling isn’t a problem. 

“Hey!” Kaede greets, smiling at her with her thousand-watt smile. “Smoothie time?”

“Mhmm.” Maki steps out of her room and closes the door behind her as gently as possible. “So, do you want to talk about earlier, or are we dropping it?”

“I want to talk about it, if that's okay. I’m sorry about that, by the way, I was just upset and wanted to see if I could figure it out myself. But I’ve never really struggled with a piece this much before, and….”

Kaede keeps talking, and talking about the issue seems to make her feel better, like it’s drawing out poison from her veins. Maki doesn’t know shit about music, but she knows that this goes beyond left-handed thirty-second notes, and so she listens and grasps for the sentiment instead: the frustration, the unfamiliar feeling of being bad at something where she normally shines, the feelings of uselessness and irritation. Those are things Maki can understand. 

It’s then she realizes that listening to Kaede actually makes her feel better, too, as if their hearts were one and the same and feelings passed between them so smoothly and effortlessly that it was impossible to tell where they started. And finally, Kaede’s hand brushes against hers and the tightness in Maki’s chest dissipates, leaving behind a full-body airiness that’s as cold as the ice in Hope’s Peak’s kitchen and as pink as a strawberry smoothie.


End file.
